Mark Dai | 2026 SURF Participant

Mark Dai is a sophomore James Scholar majoring in neural engineering with a minor in computer science. His research interests include machine learning and computational modeling of brain function to better understand behavior and treat neurological diseases. At Illinois, he works in the CONNECTLab using computational analysis of fMRI data and transdiagnostic measures to investigate factors influencing ambiguous emotion perception. He served as a course assistant for CS 173 (Discrete Structures), leading office hours and discussion sections to help students understand challenging algorithms and abstract concepts while mentoring more than 600 students over two semesters. He also previously served as project lead for NeuroTech, where he led software design for a neural prosthetics project called Universum that later evolved into the biotech startup Second Chance Innovations. At Mayo Clinic, he will develop novel algorithms and modeling techniques to study the relationship between neural connectivity and noise correlation as he prepares to pursue a PhD in computational neuroscience.